7TM raises $15 million and sells assets to OSI
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
7TM Pharma, a privately held Danish biotech company, has raised DKK75 million ($15 million) to develop its treatments for metabolic disorders and obesity. The company's lead product, obinepitide, a synthetic analogue of PYY3-36 and a pancreatic polypeptide, is currently in Phase I/II trials for the treatment of obesity. 7TM's other products include TM30339, a Y4-selective agonist, which has completed clinical Phase I studies and has begun Phase I/II studies in obesity. The company has also developed TM38837 in preclinical studies in obesity and diabetes. The product has been designed to reduce central nervous system-related side-effects associated with other centrally acting CB1 antagonists (most of these products have been dropped from development following the failure of Sanofi-Aventis's Acomplia (rimonabant)). In addition to the financing, 7TM has also sold certain early-stage discovery and technology assets toOSI Pharmaceuticals. The company will help establish the technology at OSI's subsidiary OSI (Prosidion). 7TM expects to have sufficient cash to the end of 2010.